http://www.meetup.com/

[alanmalarkey]

I sampled my first experience of a meet-up group last night, probably my first true group conversation occasion. I arrived at a cellar bar in London (Loom) just before 7 finding it empty but for me. However, people gradually gathered and the few tables reserved expanded and grew as more than 20 arrived.

Most who came were stronger speakers than me and the acoustics sometimes made it difficult to hear. I tried to feel brave and practise my Spanish but found anything other than present tense flew out of the non-existent window - but I guess it helped, and at least I was able to listen and learn. Sometimes I found myself nodding agreement even though I didn't have a clear view of what was being said. I also met Simon another user of these pages and did some marketing on Ben and Marina's behalf.

Overall, the experience was positive and I will repeat it in a couple of weeks but I think I need to be slightly better to gain the full benefit of the event. I was also surprised at the fluidity of the group as most that I talked to seemed to be on their first to third visit - I am not sure what this says about the event but one person thought there must be a latent membership of 2000! One member commented on irony of all these Brits speaking Spanish in London while in Spain there are others that don't bother.

Advantages

ordinary conversation about the trivial as well as the contentious.

good mix of people

experience of many different accents

an understanding by others of the dynamics of learning a language

some welcome lubrication

Disadvantages

feeling slightly beyond my comfort zone

Noisy and difficult to concentrate

too few native Spanish speakers

mixed ability groups when levels are too disparate

Alan

[Ben]

Thanks for the report Alan (and the marketing!), I think that experiences like this can only be positive, even if they are a bit tricky to start with. I bet next time you will feel twice as confident and be twice as fluent. How could others find this group if they were interested?

[alanmalarkey]

Thanks Ben - here is the link for the page
link deleted by moderator

But there are other similar groups, for example in Reading I think.

I may try and start one in Croydon as the journey is a bit of a mission for me and the organisation of it seems fairly simple, and of course Croydon is the cultural centre of South London!

[alanmalarkey]

sorry, I don't think the link above works - try this

http://spanish.meetup.com/30/?gj=sj6

[TZR7]

Thank you for the link - it looks interesting. I was wondering if there are any people near Leicestershire that would be interested in something like this?

[jonk]

Google leicester and spanish and you'll get a good idea

The meetup group in Melbourne is fairly disorganised although does meet every month.

[gary]

Sometimes I found myself nodding agreement even though I didn't have a clear view of what was being said.

Sounds like post Ofsted feedback